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Tasso's Holograph Annotations to Horace's ARS Poetica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2021

Rudolph Altrocchi*
Affiliation:
Unitersity of California

Extract

Among the incunabula in the John Hay Library of Brown University are two quarto editions of Horace's Opera, with comment by Cristoforo Landino, one published in Florence in 1482 “per Antonium Miscominum,” the other in 1483 in Venice “per Joannem de Forlivio et socios,” the latter edition probably pirated from the former. Both volumes contain holograph annotations by Pomponio Leto, by Bernardo Tasso and by Torquato Tasso; and both volumes, so far as I can ascertain, have been overlooked by scholars both in Italy and in this country. I have, therefore, undertaken to study part, at least, of this material.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , December 1928 , pp. 931 - 952
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1928

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References

page 931 note 1 This pirating was noted by Professor Harry L. Koopman, Librarian of the John Hay Library, in a brief article entitled: Tasso's Horace at Brown, published in the Providence Sunday Journal, May 1, 1904. I take this opportunity of most heartily thanking Mr. Koopman who first introduced me to the above-mentioned incunabula and who, in fact, found and purchased these treasures for Brown University.

page 931 note 2 Solerti, however, in his Notizie dei libri postillati da Torquato Tasso, in Vol. II of his Vita di Torquato Tasso, Turin, Loescher, 1895, p. 113, does mention in his mere enumeration of volumes the 1483 edition, and refers to Panzer, III, p. 190, no. 678. See also: Catalogue of the Extraordinary Collection of Splendid Manuscripts . . . . . .formed by M. Guglielmo Libri, London, 1859, p. 197, No. 870; and again Solerti, Notizie dei libri postillati da Torquato Tasso che si conservano nella Barberi-niana di Roma in Rivista delle biblioteche e degli archivi, (VI) 1895, pp. 115-117.

page 931 note 3 See V. Zabughin, Giulio Pomponio Leto, Rome, 1909-1912, 2 vols. The third volume has not appeared because, unfortunately, the author died in an accident in 1925, as Professor Pio Rajna tells me.

page 931 note 4 For Bernardo Tasso's imitation of the Horatian ode, see F. Flamini, Il Cinquecento, Milan, Fr. Vallardi, 1900, p. 192, and his Studi di storia letteraria italiana e straniera, Leghorn, Giusti, 1895, pp. 395-401; F. Pintor, Delle liriche di B. Tasso in the Annali della Regia Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, XIV (1899); Carducci, La poesia barbara nei secoli XV e XVI, Bologna, 1881, and his Dello svolgimento dell' ode in Italia, in Opere, Vol. XVI, Bologna, 1905; Gaspary, Storia della letteratura italiana, translated by Rossi, Turin, 1891, VoL II, Part II, pp. 135, 290; Paul Laumonier, Ronsard poète lyrique, Paris, 1909, p. 25, note 2. As the books by Bernardo Tasso in which he imitated the Horatian ode were published in 1531, 1534, 1537, and also after 1543, it is logical to suppose that it was during the thirties that the poet was chiefly interested in the imitation of Horace. For exact data on this so far unexploited subject we shall have to wait for Miss Esther Marhofer, whose doctoral dissertation at Chicago is on “The Development of the Horatian Ode in Romance Literatures.”

page 932 note 5 The statement, written on a piece of paper stuck on the V. side of the first fly leaf, says: “Horace—(Printed 1482) with Notes by Tasso. J. L. Tupper (No. 1031).” The Catalogue of the British Museum mentions certain essays by J. L. Tupper, 1872.

page 933 note 6 In all Tasso studies Angelo Solerti's Vita di Torquato Tasso, ed. cit., Vol. I, is, of course, essential. I shall hereafter refer to it simply as Solerti.

page 933 note 7 La “Sofonisba” di Giangiorgio Trissino con note di Torquato Tasso, edite a cura di Franco Paglierani, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1884, in Vol. 203 of the Scelta di curiosità inedite o rare. See also a review of this work by Bernardo Morsolin, in Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, IV, 432 ff. and the following study therein referred to: Note inedite di Torquato Tasso sulla “Sofonisba” di G. G. Trissino, per nozze Todeschini-Zampatelli, Piacenza, Marchesotti, 1883.

page 933 note 8 Op. cit. p. xiv, xv.

page 933 note 9 As only the recto sides of the pages are numbered, the actual number 156. does not appear in our facsimile.

page 934 note 10 Cf. my note 6. Paglierani discusses, on p. iv, ff., the date of this edition of the Sophonisba.

page 934 note 11 In quoting Horace I use, in order to avoid the somewhat unclear abbreviations of the 1482 edition, the text given by the Horace of the Loeb Classical Library, London, Heinemann, 1926.

page 934 note 12 In transcribing Tasso's annotations, I take no liberties with the text, even following the lack of punctuation, which, incidentally, suggests that these annotations were written in haste, for his own perusal or satisfaction and not for the public. I do, however, resolve such abbreviations as no for non, etc. In the small margin between Horace's text and Landino's comment, there is a little hand, pen-drawn, probably by Tasso, pointing vertically to line 9 (see facsimile, page 156v).

page 935 note 13 For the correct reading of this name I am indebted to Professor G. W. Benedict, of Brown University, whom I gladly thank.

page 940 note 14 I am glad to express my thanks here to Professor C. W. Miller, of the Department of Physics of Brown University, who very kindly provided me with high-powered lights, lenses, etc.

page 940 note 15 See his Discorsi dell'arte poetica, edition annotated by Angelo Solerti, Turin, Paravia, 1901, pp. 14, 30.

page 940 note 16 See Tasso's Discorsi. . . . . .ed cit., p. 28.

page 940 note 17 For Tasso's sources see Solerti, p. 461 ff., and references given; V. Vivaldi, Sulle fonti della Gerusalemme Liberata, Catanzaro, 1893; also Vivaldi, La Gerusa-lemme Liberata studiata nelle sue fonti; episodi, Trani, 1907; etc. Many curious sources for Tasso's works in general and for his Aminta in particular may be found in the following rich sample of XVIIIth century erudition: Giusto Fontanini: L'Aminta di Torquato Tasso difeso e illustrato. . . . ., con alcune osservazioni d'un accademico fiorentino, Venezia, Sebastiano Coleti, 1730. In his Discorsi, ed. cit.. p. 23, Tasso mentions Lucan and Silius Italicus and says: “l'uno e l'altro de' quali troppo ampia e copiosa materia abbracciò...... . . . .,” and then significantly compares Livy and Silius.

page 941 note 18 The precise passage alluded to is probably Æneid, IV, 412-449, as was kindly suggested by Dr. T. T. Savage, of Brown University, whom I consulted.

page 941 note 19 See Apologia del S. Torquato Tasso, In difesa della sua Gerusalemme Liberata, Ferrara, Appresso Giulio Cesare Cagnaccini et Fratelli, 1585. On p. 15 v. Tasso says: “Dante, Poeta divino .... ad imitatione del quale trattai alcune delle cose celesti;” and then on p. 42: “Dante, che scrisse più fiorentinamente del Petrarca, ma non ebbe elocutione così poetica e così pellegrina.” See also Solerti, p. 416.

page 941 note 20 See La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri Postillata da Torquato Tasso, Pisa, 1830; and Celani, Enrico: La pastille di T. Tasso alla Divina Commedia, edite nell' autografo della R. Biblioteca Angelica, con prefazione di T. Casini, Città di Castello, Lipi, 1896. (Collezione di opuscoii danteschi). A direct reference, however, to Count Ugolino may be found in Tasso's Discorsi . . . . ed. cit., pp. 60-61. Giovanni Rosini, in his Saggio sugli amori di Torquato Tasso, Pisa, Capurro, 1841, mentions, on p. 184, a copy of Virgil with numerous comments by Tasso. Of course this book was inaccessible to me, but it must have annotations somewhat similar to ours because Rosini says (loc. cit.): “E questo pure è veramente un tesoro (giacchè i detti commenti si potrebbero chiamar sovente la poetica del Tasso); e di più sono sfoghi del suo Amore e dell'altrui tirannia.”

page 942 note 21 See Maugain, Ronsard et l'Italie, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1926; also Pierre de Nolhac, Ronsard et l'Humanisme, Paris, Champion, 1921, pp. 225-226, where the author notes that only in one place does Tasso mention Ronsard, that is in his Dialogue: Il Cataneo o vero de gli Idoli. The autographic reference I am now publishing seems to be, therefore, the only other mention of Ronsard by Tasso, though not actually appearing in published works. De Nolhac also notes that, among Italian writers, Lodovico Castelvetro is tire first to show a direct knowledge of the works of Ronsard.

page 942 note 22 Solerti, pp. 148-149.

page 942 note 23 Op. cit. in my note 7.

page 942 note 24 See also B. Morsolin, op. cit., p. 436, who notes a reference to Trissino in which Tasso finds him using such lowly and trivial language: “che Orazio lo chiamerebbe ‘sermo pedestris’.” And in his Discorsi (ed. cit.), p. 24, Tasso calls “Trissino ”digiuno ed arido,“ because he took, in his epic, too large a subject and (p. 34) tried in vain to imitate Homer.

page 944 note 25 Sec Solerti, pp. 169 ff.

page 944 note 26 See, for instance, the edition of the Aminta with annotations by G. P. Pel-lizzaro, Napoli, Perrella (1914), Act I, Sc. 1,1. 183, “Il saggio Elpino” and note; also Sc. 2, p. 302 and note. See also Solerti. pp. 170 ff.

page 944 note 27 See Gerusalemme Liberata, Canto II, octave 58, ll. 7, 8. “Al finger pronto, a l'ingannare accorto Gran fabro di calunnie. . . .” See also Solerti, p. 172.

page 945 note 28 Again I refer first of all to Solerti, Ch. XX, who gives a most detailed account of the whole affair, which had been accurately set forth by Serassi in his Life of Tasso. Solerti gives, also, a Bibliografia delle polemiche . . . . in his Appendice alle open in prosa di Torquato Tasso, Florence, Le Monnier, 1892. See also V. Vivaldi, La più granda polemica del Cinquecento, Catanzaro, Caliò, 1895.

page 945 note 29 I am using H. Rushton Fairchlough's translation of Horace, op. cit. See my note 11.

page 946 note 30 See Le Lettere di Torquato Tasso, disposte per ordine di tempo ed illustrate da Cesare Guasti, Florence, Le Monnier, 1853, II, 359.

page 946 note 31 See Solerti, p. 175; Giuseppe Campori e Angelo Solerti, Luigi, Lucrezia e Leonora d'Este, Turin, 1888; Solerti, Ferrara e la corte estense nella seconda metà del secolo decimosesto, Città di Castello, Lapi, 1891; Francesco D'Ovidio, Studi sul Petrarca e sul Tasso, in Opere, XI, Rome, Edizioni A.P.E., (1926), pp. 337 ff. (This ttudy of Professor D'Ovidio first appeared in the Nuova Antologia of July 15, 1882.)

page 946 note 32 See D'Ovidio, op. cit., p. 364. Professor D'Ovidio says: “Neppur uno dei contemporanei suoi fa il minimo accenno a questo voluto amore,” but was not Manso, Tasso's biographer, a friend and contemporary?

page 946 note 33 For dramatizations of Tasso, see Il Tasso in teatro, in a “numero unico”: Torquato Tasso, xxv aprile 1895, Bergamo, 1895, pp. 4-5; Salvatore Capasso, Tasso nella commedia, in Bios, IV, 13, Naples, Pesola, 1895; and Angelo Mori, Le sventure del Tasso nel teatro italiano, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1895.

page 947 note 34 See Rosini's book, op. cit. (my note 20) which was written to prove the truth of this love affair. But see Solerti, pp. 842 ff.

page 947 note 35 Solerti's of course

page 947 note 36 Latin dictionaries seem to admit for this adjective both an active and a passive interpretation. Again I am indebted to Professor J. J. Savage, of Brown, for enlightenment, and to my teacher and old friend Professor E. K. Rand, of Harvard, who called my attention to a similar use of flebilis for “mourned” in Horace, Odes, I, 24,. 9.

page 947 note 37 “Non piangeva in versi per la malattia di lei, a cagione di una non so qual tanta ripugnanza.” Quoted by D'Ovidio, op. cit., p. 272.

page 947 note 38 Solerti, pp. 239 ff.

page 949 note 39 Solerti, p. 415, who refers to Cesare Guasti, La Crusca e il Tasso, in Lettere, IV.

page 949 note 40 As a matter of fact, since II Pigna died in 1575, and since, as I have just said, these annotations must have been written after 1583, Tasso did refer to one already deceased and not in complimentary terms.

page 949 note 41 Solerti, p. 439; and V. Vivaldi, Studi letterarii, Naples, 1891, p. 48.

page 949 note 42 Solerti, p. 437.

page 949 note 43 Ibid., p. 415.

page 949 note 44 Ibid., p. 416.

page 949 note 45 Ibid., p. 421.

page 949 note 46 Ibid., p. 422; and Lettere, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 357.

page 950 note 47 Solerti, p. 424.

page 951 note 48 Lettere, ed. cit., vot. cit., p. 379.

page 951 note 49 Ibid., p. 375.

page 951 note 50 Ibid., p. 367.

page 951 note 51 Solerti, p. 493.

page 951 note 52 I wish to thank most heartily the Harvard Library, without which this study would not have been possible, and particularly Mr. W. R. Briggs, Assistant Librarian, who so kindly expresses the hospitality of that great library.